Disclaimer: No ownie, at least, not Gordon or the rest of the Tracy's, Commander Shore or any other characters from those two shows. However some of the characters are mine, (Jenna and Leo super specifically) feel free to borrow them, just let me know.

A/N: Ok, for those who know me, and have been waiting for an update for forever first let me apologise. It wasn't that I forgot this story; I just had lots of other things to do, so it was left. However, I have spent a whole afternoon fixing up my grammar (it's not perfect, but I tried). Etc. and writing the next chapter, as well as planning out the rest of the story. So I will be updating, but not frequently. That doesn't mean I won't eventually finish this story. I will. But as they say, All good things come to those who wait, so I implore you to wait just a little longer. Only 9 more chapters to go before the end.

Now, onto the story.

W A S P

Overheard

Gordon made his way dejectedly into the office; maybe he had gone a little overboard this time. The principal had even called his father in. he had to be the only sixteen year old to be called to the principals office six times a day- a major achievement in it's own right, but definitely not good now that his father had been called in.

"Go on in Gordon." Mrs Samson smiled.

Gordon gave her his usual grin and leaned on the desk. "Is it bad? Should I take precautions? Do you still have that can of spray paint I gave you? I will go down fighting!" he said loudly and dramatically.

"Oh go on Gordon, get in there!" she laughed.

Gordon heaved a theatrical sigh and went down the little corridor to the principal's office. He paused outside the door and smiled wickedly. Might as well know what they were discussing before he went in, to get his alibi right. He pushed the door open a crack, not really noticeable to those inside, he moved closer and listened.

"--really must learn some control." The principal finished.

Jeff Tracy heaved a long-suffering sigh. "I know that Mr. Smith, but there's very little I can do about it, I've tried everything, he's got four brothers to compete against, it's his way to stand out."

"I understand that Mr. Tracy, but this uncontrollable desire of his to cause trouble, well, it's holding him back. He won't make it in life if he doesn't learn to control himself. I mean, he set up a chemistry experiment to explode on the teacher. Mr. Tracy, I'm sorry but I can't have such a disruptive student here, he distracts both the teachers and his fellow pupils."

"So you're saying you're expelling him?" Jeff sighed, resigned.

"No, I'm giving him a suspension of two weeks, if he hasn't settled himself by then; well… he has one last chance after this Mr. Tracy. It's really all I can do."

Jeff nodded. "All right."

Gordon's eyes widened… he was getting suspended? But, but… why? And why was his father agreeing with it? Gordon pulled away from the door, frowning. His father had sounded so resigned, like he agreed with the principals assessment… maybe his father thought he wouldn't make it in life either.

Scott, Virgil and John had all been model pupils, always showed up to class, always did their homework. Went on to university-or in Scott's case went straight into the air force. Virgil and John were in university, John was headed for a career as an astronaut, Virgil was probably going to be a composer or something. Alan… well Alan mostly kept up with school, unless Gordon distracted him.

So what did that mean?

Gordon had never like school, it was just so boring, nothing held his attention; he had to do something to liven it up. He had never really thought about what he wanted to be. His only hobby was really swimming and playing pranks. He glanced back at the office. Principal Smith was right, he wasn't going to make it in life-sure people liked a joker, but one who had nothing else going for them…

Damn.

What all this pointed to was that Gordon was going to end up a drop out-a suspension wouldn't make him any better at school, he had tried studying once, all he had succeeded in doing was sending his brain into overload and flunking all his exams. And he wouldn't be able to sit still in class. He had a modicum of self control, but not that much!

"Gordon?"

Gordon jumped, startled out of his thoughts. He turned slightly to see his father staring at him in abject disappointment. It shocked Gordon; he could remember seeing that look before, so why was it suddenly taking on a different meaning?

Dammit! This is what thinking deeply did to him; though his brothers would laugh if they heard he'd been thinking at all. Of course he thought--just not often, because if he did he would usually realise something he didn't want to know. Like the fact that he was actually a disappointment to his father.

"Gordon--come on, we're going home." Jeff said shortly.

Gordon nodded silently and followed his father out of the school and to the car, still thinking, unable to stop himself now that he'd started. He was a disappointment to his father-right. So did that also make him a disappointment to the rest of his family? Did Scott, Virgil or John see him as that? Was he going to turn out to be the reason Alan flunked school? Was he forever going to be known as the Tracy dropout?

"Dad?" he asked suddenly in the tense silence of the car, fidgeting in his seat. "Are you disappointed?" he didn't know why he asked, he hoped his father would say no, then he could lay all these really depressing thoughts to rest and move on with his life.

However, his father wasn't inclined to be accommodating today it seemed. "Let's talk about this when we get home."

"I'll take that as a yes then." Gordon said quietly, looking out the window. Mentally preparing himself for the lecture he would get as soon as they got home, and the forced imprisonment in the house while his father made him do work, catch up on assignments he had no clue about, work he hadn't listened to, and probably write apology letters to the school. Then would come his father trying to get him to talk about why he acted the way he did. Then when he got frustrated Scott would be called in, they would come to blows over it; he and Scott had always been the furthest apart in everything. John would then step in to try and smooth things over, and then he would try to convince him to try harder at school.

It would go on and on. These two weeks were going to be hell. But even more so because he knew he'd disappoint them in the end. He felt the faint prick of tears in the back of his eyes, and it surprised him--he hadn't cried since he was nine and had broken his arm. He blinked them back. He wasn't going to be a failure and a disappointment, he just wasn't. He would do whatever it took to prove it. And if that meant pulling up his grades, then by god he would try.

X

Two days later his head was aching, he honestly couldn't do the work. It just didn't make sense--it was just as mind numbingly boring on the page as it was when the teachers taught it. He couldn't do it. He honestly couldn't. He groaned and dropped his head to land on the book. The lecture had gone as expected; the forced imprisonment to the house, with no pool time was killing him slowly. He had promised his father he would do all the assignments, and work really hard and pull his grades up, stop pulling pranks. Everything.

But he couldn't do it. It was frustrating him to the point of tears. He pushed the books to the other side of his desk and pulled over his laptop and switched it on. He was going to look up jobs, ones that wouldn't disappoint his family. So far he had found nothing short of joining the air force like Scott that didn't require super grades, and even that required more than he would ever get.

When the laptop loaded he searched a few sites. His headache lessening just a little. Finally he gave up and just typed in 'swimming' and 'job', up popped a number of sites, swimming instructors, swimming instructors, swimming instructors, and swimming instructors-and oh, oh-more swimming instructors. He sighed and scrolled down the page, and stopped.

Navy.

Interesting.

He clicked on it. He read all the information, and the more he read the more he like the idea. It appealed to him because of the water activity, it was very physical, something he could work with, and some engineering, he could fix engines, his father had taught them all when they were younger, and he enjoyed it. And there were further options; he could get into the Navy Seals--oh, the elite--that he liked. There was no way he could be called a disappointment if he was a Navy Seal. And it would impress Dad and Scott because they were military people, yes, that would do.

And wait… he could join at sixteen.

He blinked at the screen for a second. He could join now? That meant he didn't have to continue school. That would be a blessing.

He read on.

Damn! He needed his father's signature. He sat back and thought for a moment. He could find a way round it. His father would never approve of his leaving school. He had to find a way round it, because if he flunked school he really would be a disappointment, and he would never make it in life.

Question was, how could he get round it. If he was to do it he would need an entirely new identity, he was going to prove a point-he could make it in the world without any help from anyone-and if he didn't have to do it by reading really boring subjects for school he was going for it. He fell into planning.

When his father checked in on him later to find him scribbling, typing and working furiously he left in wonder, Gordon was actually taking his school work seriously. That last lecture must have really worked.

X

Gordon smiled as he made his way home on Saturday afternoon of his first week. All that research had paid off granted he had gotten more than one headache doing it; he really couldn't focus on it without serious effort, even if he liked it. But it had paid off. In his bag he now had an undetectable forgery birth certificate and passport that made him 18 years old, old enough to join the Navy without parental consent. It had taken a long while to find a forgers that would do it right. But it was done, and he was nearly set.

All he needed to do now was get at enough money to get him away from here and hide him until he could safely join without his father finding out-also in his bag was a bottle of permanent black hair dye. He was taking no chances on this.

Very soon he would stop being Gordon Tracy and would become Gordon Miller, the 18 year old soon to be Navy operative! He would prove his point then let his family know how and why he had.

He supposed they would be angry with him for running away like he was planning, but it just had to be done. Yeah, the idea of not being able to just contact them whenever he wanted to talk was a bit of a downer, but he was dead set on the idea, and like his father and brothers when he set his mind to something nothing could get him to change it. It applied across the board; except where school was concerned, which drove his father crazy, it was like a mental block. He couldn't explain it, he just couldn't do it.

But this, this he could do.

Tonight he would have to start working on the money. He needed to be ready for the first available opportunity. For that he needed to plan.

X

The following week passed quickly, and it was very soon the Monday he was to go back to school. His father left him and Alan into school, but had kept him back a moment.

"Gordon, I'm glad you've started to put in the effort for school." He said. "I just hope it's not too late." He muttered quietly, though Gordon heard, and his decision reaffirmed itself again. He had almost not taken the bag with him this morning--now he was glad he had. "Now go in there and be good. I don't need to hear you've been expelled. Don't disappoint me son."

Gordon looked up at him, straight into his eyes, and Jeff was taken aback by the pure determination in his son's eyes. Though later he said he should have known he was up to something.

"I won't disappoint you dad." He said seriously, then with a grin he turned and went into the school. As he made his way to his form room his grin faded. "I won't ever disappoint you again."

X

Two hours later he was on a bus headed for some little out of the way town in the middle of nowhere, where he would dye his hair before catching another bus to New York, once there he would find the recruiting centre. He was fairly sure they would have one there.

He settled back in his seat and smiled. The school wouldn't realise he was gone until second form after lunch which was another two hours away, by which time he would be on his way to New York-if all went well. The school wouldn't inform his father until after second form, so by the time they realised he'd skipped out after form class he would be far too far away for them to stop him.

He would have to keep a low profile for a while. He had left a note on his laptop telling his family he was leaving to prove a point and he wouldn't be returning until he had done it. Telling them not to bother looking, that he would be fine.

They would look though, he knew they would--hence the hair dye, and later some more precautions. But from now on he wasn't Gordon Tracy, he was Gordon Miller, an 18 year old boy from California, stuck living with his elderly grandparents in Kansas, hence the accent, because both his parents were dead, he had flunked out of school at 15, taken odd jobs around before finally deciding to join the Navy because he liked the idea.

He had taken every precaution at home as well. There were no papers lying round detailing what he was intending to do; he'd wiped his laptop clean. So he was safe on that front, he was confident they would never find out until he had won a medal and was on TV or something. There was a very great air of adventure surrounding this endeavour, and he was really looking forward to it.

He watched the scenery flash past and relaxed. Out of the bounds of his family, away from the pressures of keeping up with his older brothers, of being a model older brother himself he felt freer than he had ever felt. Yes, he had made the right decision to do this. It was as much to prove a point to himself as it was to prove it to his family.

He could do this.

He could make it.

Without any help.

He would make it.

X